Google preparing to update Glass from Android 4.0.3 to 4.4

February has come and gone, and many Google Glass Explorers were left wondering what happened to the monthly update cycle Google promised when the Explorer Program was announced. It turns out Google has shifted its philosophy away from meeting a monthly deadline and more towards hitting larger targets. First on the list is updating Glass from Ice Cream Sandwich to KitKat, which is a very good thing for Glass users.

Google’s monthly update promise was never a good idea long term. It is fun to know that once a month there’s going to be something new to play with on your wearable computer, and that pace probably suited Google when initially trying to attract an audience. At this point, however, the publicity gained by minor feature updates and the occasional app or three is in danger of being dwarfed by the realization that the platform is in need of more significant changes.

On February 28, a post appeared on the members only MyGlass Forum explaining that there would be no February update. Glass users have been running version XE12 since December, and although it included features that were intended for the January update, people were eager to see XE13.

The post explained that the update would be delayed, and that it would contain a version update to KitKat. While some users responded critically, wondering why Google waited until the very last minute to explain this, there’s plenty of users perfectly alright with waiting and enjoying the benefits of the update.

Pushing Glass to Android 4.4 is a big deal for several reasons. The first, and likely most important, is the benefit gained from KitKat’s ability to run well even on lesser hardware. Since the processor in Glass is only running at 1GHz with 1GB of RAM, Android 4.4 should allow Glass to run smoother and offer more flexibility to developers.

Moving away from Android 4.0.3 also means that Bluetooth Low Energy support will be greatly improved, which will undoubtedly mean better battery life when tethered directly to your phone. There’s potentially some additional benefits that could be found in switching Glass to the ART system instead of Dalvik runtime, but we won’t know until Google releases the update whether or not Glass will be using that function.

The Glass team has not offered a timeframe for this update, but it was made clear it will be available sometime soon. Google’s update cycle for Glass is random at best, so there’s no real way of knowing when they are going to push this update out.

There’s a good chance Google will have a new wave of apps waiting on this update as well, so when it drops there’s going to be plenty of new things to do. All we have to do now is wait.